Kenneth
JandaPolitical Parties: A Cross-National SurveyNew York: The Free
Press, 1980: pp. 281-282FEDERATION of RHODESIA and NYASALAND:
The Party System in 1950-1956 and
1957-19621

(Text
as published in 1980 citation above)

Amid the protests of African leaders, the
British protectorates of Northern Rhodesia, Southern
Rhodesia, and Nyasaland were joined in a federal government
in September 1953. The Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland
was opposed by the African majority, who claimed it was a
device to perpetuate white supremacy. The white leaders
favored the federation for both its political potential and
its economic value, which was especially attractive to its
sponsor, Great Britain.

The federation held its first elections
in December 1953, when the European led Federal Party won 24
of the 26 elected seats in the Federal Assembly, and the
party's leader, Sir Godfrey Huggins (later Lord Malvern)
became the federation's first prime minister. White
opposition to the Federal Party was centered in the
Confederate Party, which won only one seat in the Assembly.
Nine additional seats were reserved for African
representatives, but effective representation of Africans
was deflected at the federal level. Only in Northern
Rhodesia, where Harry Nkumbala and Kenneth Kaunda led the
Northern Rhodesian African National Congress, and in
Nyasaland, where Dr. Hastings Banda controlled the African
National Congress, were the interests of the African
population meaningfully expressed.

Huggins retired from political life in
1956 and was succeeded by Roy Welensky as prime minister and
leader of the Federal Party, which later merged with the
United Rhodesia Party to form the United Federal Party
(UFP). The Federal Assembly passed an amendment to the
constitution, effective January 1, 1958, which increased the
Assembly to 59 members, admitting some additional African
representatives. The first elections under the new amendment
were held in November 1958, and the United Federal Party
again won an overwhelming majority of the seats. But the
Confederate opposition, reorganized into the Dominion Party,
challenged the UFP by winning several seats while advocating
white supremacy and severe segregation policies. Welensky,
however, became the federation's prime minister once
again.

Tensions within the federation steadily
increased following the election as the demands of African
leaders for the dissolution of the federation increased in
number and in vigor. Kenneth Kaunda, after splitting with
Nkumbula in 1958 to form the Zambian African National
Congress (later the United National Independence Party),
demanded the immediate withdrawal of Northern Rhodesia from
the federation and the subsequent independence of the
protectorate under the name of Zambia. Dr. Banda, after
forming the Malawi Congress to replace the outlawed African
National Congress of Nyasaland, made similar demands. The
government, dominated by the white minority, banned several
African parties and jailed many of their leaders, including
Kaunda and Banda for a short period. Meanwhile, the British
tried vainly to keep the federation intact. The federal
elections of 1962 were boycotted by all African parties plus
the Dominion Party, resulting in an overwhelming and hollow
victory for Welensky and his United Federal Party. Britain
finally realized that the federation was causing more
problems than it was solving, and in December agreed to
grant Nyasaland internal self-government and secession from
the federation beginning on February 1, 1963. On July 3 the
decision was reached to dissolve the federation officially
as of December 31, 1963.

Continuity
and Change since 1962

The graph of
party strength over time in the Federation of Rhodesia and
Nyasaland shows the termination of all four parties in our
study. That is somewhat misleading, for in reality the
polity ended but two of its parties continued, one lasting
through 1978. In place of the old federation stood the new
nations of Malawi, Rhodesia, and Zambia. We shall not
attempt to inventory the parties that operated in these
nations since 1963, but we will relate the fate of the four
original ones.

Original
Parties, Terminated

071
United Federal Party. The Federal Party
terminated with the end of the federation in 1963, when it
fragmented into separate parties in each of the three
territories. Its remnants became the Rhodesia Party in
Southern Rhodesia, the National Progress Party in Northern
Rhodesia (Zambia), and the Nyasaland Constitutional Party in
Nyasaland (Malawi). All these were white parties that played
no substantial roles in the black governments of Zambia and
Malawi. In the white government of Rhodesia, the Rhodesia
Party opposed the racially intransigent Rhodesian Front
government of Ian Smith but grew progressively weaker and
was disbanded after the 1965 election, when it elected no
Europeans to parliament.

072
Dominion Party. The Dominion Party certainly
terminated along with the federation in 1963, but probably
ended in 1962 with the formation of the Rhodesian Front, a
collection of former Dominion Party members from Southern
Rhodesia and others favored preservation of white supremacy.
The Rhodesian Front became the governing party under Prime
Minister Ian Smith.

073
African National Congress. Under the old
federation, the ANC was a regional party, supported Africans
in Northern Rhodesia and excluded from meaningful
participation in federal politics. When the country emerged
as the independent nation of Zambia in 1964, the ANC served
as the opposition party to Kenneth Kaunda's United National
Independence Party. The ANC ended in 1972, when all parties
except UNIP were banned, and many ANC leaders were
incorporated into the UNIP.

Original
Parties, Continuing

074
Malawi Congress Party. Like the ANC, Malawi
Congress Party (MCP) was regional, being ported by Africans
in Nyasaland. Unlike ANC, b ever, the Malawi Congress Party
emerged as the governing party in an independent Malawi. In
1966, the MCP leader and president of Malawi, Dr. Hastings
Kamuzu Banda, declared the MCP to be the only legal
party.

1. Our study of party politics in the
Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland is based on a file
of 2,302 pages from 95 documents, all of 'ch are in
English (see Table 1.3). The file was completed in 1968,
'ch accounts for the absence of more recent citations.
The bibliographic search and indexing of material for the
file was done by ward Matthews. Donald Hook coded the
United Federal Party, Paul J. Rossa coded the other three
parties. James R. Scarritt kindly reviewed this section
and provided advice on our coding.